Three Cheers for Hair

This Presidents' Days week there is a special display of presidential hair by the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia. It includes locks of hair from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and more. The collection belongs to a lawyer from Philadelphia who received them from his family’s estate. The locks of hair are part of a display album with notes and historical contexts included. It sounds fascinating or maybe, a little odd for some. But remember, one of the most oft-told stories from the Bible is of a man’s hair: Samson.
He was said to have super human strength, killing thousands of Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. He had the strength of the Incredible Hulk and the hair of Fabio. His downfall came because of his cutting of the hair, or at least that’s how the story is often told.

Judges 16
17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."

Was the secret of his strength in the length of his locks? Not so much. Not cutting his hair was part of a spiritual vow of living a pure and devoted life to God as a Nazarene. The vow also included avoiding wine and contact with dead bodies. As his life shows, Samson wasn’t a very good Nazarene. He liked to get buzzed and he regularly came into contact with the dead since he killed so many. He really didn’t walk the walk of his spiritual commitments to God. In the end he came public with his spiritual state by allowing his hair to be cut. Cutting his hair symbolized terminating his vow to God.
People of all walks of life go back and forth with God. They go through periods of ferver and commitment, then nothingness. You see it the lives of those Jesus chose to follow him. They all in one way or another walked away from him. They all in one way or another served him well. But in the end, their (our) future doesn’t depend on how the scales balance out. It doesn’t depend on whether we zig more than we zag. It depends on him. He is strong for us. He is right for us. He is consistent for us. He keeps his vow for us. He hangs on the cross for us. In our culture and cultures around the world, people think hair says something about a person. And as Christians we can agree. It tells us is that we are all human. One of the things a Sunday School teacher told a class I was in in High School is that we need to learn to laugh at ourselves more. Confession is good for the soul. Beating ourselves up is not. To encourage you to laugh at yourself a little, here's a classic Buggs Bunny cartoon "The Bunny of Seville."